Page 2 of Storm and Tempest
She worked at a long table that allowed her to stand and face the door, so he could see her head. She looked over the monitors she had stacked one on top of the other, beside them a vertically aligned display, all of which ensured no one walked up behind her and surprised her. It looked like the setup of an emergency dispatcher.
Jax didn’t think she’d explained to the other agents why she needed things set up a certain way, same as he hadn’t told them that technically she was his adopted daughter. All he’d said was that she was excellent at what she did. Good enough it warranted them hiring her on as a consultant.
If anyone thought that was because he planned to use Bureau resources to find his wife…okay, so they’d be right. But Maizie had helped with several other cases the past few weeks, and she loved his cat.
Her eyes flared seeing him, and she lowered the volume of the music. “You heard about the warrant?”
He nodded, going around her table to see what she had on her screens. At the last second the left side flashed, and the home page for an internet search engine popped up. “I’m heading out in a minute.”
Maizie hopped onto the stool beside her, angled toward him. She wore the same kind of cargos that Special Agent Herron had on, but her polo shirt was a gray color and had a different emblem sewn on it. She’d also chosen one that was a size too big so it hung loose on her, and she’d pulled her thick blond hair into a ponytail. Some makeup, but not much. All of it designed to draw as little attention to her as possible.
She was barely eighteen, and for all intents his daughter, so he was fine by that. Later, when she found some confidence in who she was as a woman and started to come out of her shell a little, she was going to be a knockout. He wasn’t ready for her to knock some poor young guy on his behind, but if she got into a relationship with someone who treated her like precious china, then Jax figured they could probably come to some kind of consensus.
The kind that would have Jax burying evidence along with the guy’s body if he hurt her.
The others in the office had noticed her unique mannerisms. She wasn’t exactly skittish. She simply turned to face the person every time she talked to them. She didn’t go alone to her car—Jax always walked her downstairs and would often see one of Kenna’s team in the parking lot watching out for her as well. And she kept things professional with the agents and other civilian employees.
If anyone looked her up, they wouldn’t find a file on the reason she was the way she was. Far as Jax was concerned, Maizie’s past was no one’s business.
Kenna was gone, so it was up to him to look out for Maizie.
Both of them wanted to find her, and coming here, Maizie had acted like he gave her the keys to the kingdom. Their tech was pretty cool. She just had to stay within the bounds of the law—something she hadn’t technically always done with Kenna.
“Do you think Kenna might be at the bar when they search it?” She bit her lip, which made her look younger. But it was her eyes that told a different story.
One of the women in the office had asked him a few questions that got pretty close to the truth of what had happened to Maizie. No one would guess she’d been a captive her entire life, raised by the man who called her his wife. She’d escaped and he was dead, and now Maizie got to start over and live the life she wanted.
Jax leaned back against the counter and folded his arms. “I don’t want to get my hopes up, but I can’t help it. And then at the same time, it’s so unlikely she’s there.”
“I know.” Her face flushed. “I want her to be there so you can have her back.”
“Me, too,” he replied, wanting to reassure her.
Maizie had still been in Colorado when he got out of the hospital, and during those rough few days when he was getting clean. She hadn’t seen his worst, and he planned to keep it that way.
“You good here, Maze?”
“Yes, Jax.” She almost rolled her eyes but didn’t. “I found a connection between the bar and…Dominatus.” She said that last word more quietly than the rest, as they’d both learned to keep to themselves what would sound like a worldwide conspiracy to the other agents. “I need to solidify the connection, but it’s there.”
“Good.” That meant there was a greater chance Kenna was at the bar.
“But it’s a front for?—”
“Sex crimes?” They had to keep it plain, keep the emotions out of it.
“If she is there?—”
“Maze.” He had to tread cautiously. “I know what you’re saying. But the fact is, she could be anywhere, and we have no way to know what’s happening to her. You can’t let the unknown drive you crazy. We deal in facts, and things we can prove. Like a connection between this place and our enemy. Tell me what you found.”
She scrunched up her nose, her gaze scanning the screens. “It’s just a feeling, but I’m going to prove it. There’s a connection to shell corporations we’ve come across before, but it’s thin. They’re good at hiding their tracks, burying what they own.”
A few months back they’d taken down a rogue doctor, formerly withDominatusbut operating on his own in a silo buried out in the desert. They’d stopped that, and it had cost them Kenna. Right now, they didn’t know what the organization behind all this was up to. But it was definitely something, considering for decades—or more—they’d been directing international events, infiltrating governments, creating genetically superior children, and pretty much trying to rule the world.
And now they had Kenna.
He rubbed his chest. “I need to go.”
Maizie reached over and touched his shoulder.
